Bad Clutch will lose your ability to hypermile

You may not be able to tell the difference between a bad clutch and a good clutch. Mainly if you are driving a manual gear you may experience some lag between throttle response and transmission response. This means loss of kinetic energy from flywheel to transmission.

How to recognise bad clutch/ or clutch slip

• You may hear a squeaking  sound while you accelerating or decelerating.
• You may recognise lack of throttle response and transmission response.( Specially in manual transmission)
• You may smell clutch slipping odour while riding uphill or while sudden acceleration.
• If you applied hand brake firmly and engaged to a higher gear then release the  clutch paddle , and your motor keeps running then there is a serious clutch slipping.
• Oil leakage from bell housing. (Where clutch is located- this may happen of crank seal failure)
• If you have parked or stopped at a steep up angle and when you have lack of clutch response when you try to move from that complete stop, that is a bad clutch.

Why clutches are getting bad or why they slip?

• Its mainly because of drivers bad habits.
• Riding the clutch - Most of drivers do not drive with fully engaged clutch. This leads to clutch slip. If clutch starts to slip it tends to slip continuously.
• Because clutch, pressure plate wear over long period of time.(This is perfectly normal)
• Loss of tension of pressure plate finger fins, springs.
• Bad master and slave clutch pumps and clutch system.
• Carrying extra weight over long period.

Always do routine check on your vehicle to confirm whether its on good condition or not. May all be able to do hypermiling! 

Basics of hypermiling

Today, with the economy crisis and extinction of fossil fuel , most of drivers tend to do hypermiling. In Sri Lanka most of drivers even don't concern about their fuel wastage and economy driving, not even hybrid vehicle owners. I'm going to talk about basics of hypermiling that also work fine for me.

Remember, hypermiling tend to risk of colliding. You need 100% concentration on road and on your vehicle. Lets Begin.

Focus

• Turn off your radio. This will not even distract you , but also drain your main battery.
• Focus on your driving habits. 
• Always focus on traffic in front and behind of you.

Vehicle Maintenance

• Make sure you vehicle transmission, suspensions and steering are well maintained and fit for the road.
•  Change engine , transmission oil regularly according to user manual. I recommend to change engine oil in every 5,000 km and transmission oil in every 60,000 km. Bad transmission and bad engine tend to lose the conversion of thermal energy to kinetic energy.
• Make sure your brakes system works fine and your brake discs are not warped. Brakes that applies constantly without drivers knowledge would jeopardise safe and economy driving.
• Do not have hood racks, spoilers attached to your car. You are not a racer. You are determined to do hypermiling. Excess drag is the worst enemy of hypermiling.

 Patience

• Drive with focus. Drive with patience. Road rage won't take you anywhere, except hospital or behind bars.

Change your driving habits

• Do not accelerate or brake too hard whenever it is possible. Sudden acceleration and deceleration affects negatively to hypermiling. Acceleration consumes your fuel and deceleration consumes your momentum.
• Keep considerable distance between adjacent vehicles.
• Always look from rear view mirror , when coasting or braking.
• Think ahead of  traffic jam or traffic lights and change to coasting mode.
• Turn off your A/C whenever its possible.
• Don't roll down your windows when your speed is over 60km h. This increases drag or parachute effect and your engine work hard to push the car forward.
• Be light on accelerator.
• Let it coast in light downhills.
• Start your journey at dawn. This will reduce traffic jam + extra energy consumption of headlamps and etc.

Vehicle load

• It's not wise to remove your spare wheel from your vehicle. But it is also an extra load.
• Carry your luggage as light as possible. More load means more energy consumption. 
• Carry extra weight downhill. Gravity will take care of delivery. 

Plan your route

• Plan and choose least traffic and least distance road.
• Always use alternative roads.
• Don't hit heavy traffic roads. If it is a must, then research for least traffic jam time and allocate that time to hit that road.
• Depart early. So you don't need to rush.